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William Hesskew
Continued from Page 3 

 

TEXAS LAND GRANTS AND ARMY PAY TO WILLIAM HESSKEW

1. On February 1st, 1838 the Bexar County Board of Land Commissioners issued to William A. Hesskew - single man - a First Class Headright (unconditional certificate #83) good for 1/3 of a league (1,476 acres) of land due to his having immigrated to Texas prior to the Texas Declaration of Independence on March 2, 1836. The land was surveyed on December 16th, 1839 and was located in Atascosa County. The land was patented on January 9th, 1846.

2. On August 15, 1881 Comptroller's Certificate #1178 was issued authorizing payment of $24.00 to William A. Haskew (sic) for 3 months duty in the army. This debt had been outstanding since 1836! In order to receive this payment as well as the land certificate mentioned below William had to submit a Proof to Procure Land Certificate for Veteran of which I have a copy in my
possession.

3. On October 29, 1881 Veteran Donation Certificate #863 for 1,280 acres was issued by the Texas General Land Commissioner to William A. Hesskew due to his service in The Texas Revolution. The land was located and surveyed in El Paso County (Moses Hesskew was the chain carrier during the survey.) but was never patented due to its being located on Railroad Reserve Land.

Written, researched and compiled by F. Scott Hinkle in Scottsdale, Arizona on January 17, 1998

Copies of all original documents cited above are in my possession.

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Comments regarding the Hesskew Name and why it appears different from Census to Census

When I first began doing research on the family I was thrown by the fact that one "printed " source would reflect one version of what was supposed to be the spelling of Hesskew and then another. Some times it would be Hesskin, Hasskin, Hesken, and so forth. The PRIMARY reason for these discrepancies is simple.

First, as an example, an individual would be assigned the task of transferring the " Hand Written Records" of say, a Census done many years ago. As One would review the old records, they would try to DECIPHER the surname Hesskew. Being that Hesskew is not a common name, they guessed. Frequently they quessed wrong.

It is not unusual for errors to be made in transcribing these documents. The evidence is strong that when references are made to William and Moses in the early periods of Texas History, that irregardless of the errors, the preponderance of information allow for us to say with certainty that these are the same individuals in this research analysis.

 

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Also of interest is the way that the Hesskew family spelled Hesskew. 100 years ago the "Leading S" when a word had two "s" in it the first "s" was frequently spelled like a "f"

You Can read more about Deciphering Old Handwriting, a link associated with Family Tree Maker

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Trivia. William and Mary had 11 children that lived. My calculations place an estimate of between 10,000 to 22,000 possible descendents.There are a lot of Cousins out there folks

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Hello Marvin:

Well I spent two hours of the afternoon at the Orlando Public Library, and I
have found
1840 Citizens of TX. Land Grant: Heskew, Moss Bexar 10 may1838 gonz 20 feb1849
Tronson, John 11 Jan 1840 Galveston,12 Jul. 1841 Galveston

Tax payers of Republic. of Tex. Bexar cty 1840: Hesskin, Moses
Hesskin, William

Assessors return for Bexar Cty, July 9th 1840 Hessken, Moses s2116

Hessken, William s1476

Texas 1850 Census Index : Hescue, Moses gonz cty Hescue, William gonz cty


Texas 1870 Census Index: Heskew, William Refugio Cty.

Tx. 1880 Census index: Hessken, William Atascosa Cty

Figuring out or real family name is going to be a challenge for the hardiest of us.

Didn't have time to pull up the census reels but will do it later, Be happy to send you copies of this stuff if you want it, let me know.

On the Tronsons the only thing I could find was in a book on the Texas CSA pension files : Tronson, Joseph S. A-00365,Bexar Cty., Martha F. A09859,h Joseph S., P-00365, Bexar Cty.

Carolyn

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 Some of the family as well as William soon adopted the use of Heskew in the spelling of there name by dropping a "s" therefore changing Hesskew to Heskew. Other variations identified were Hesskin and Hesskins in various records of the Texas Republic. The Texas 1850 Census Index even list them as : Hescue, Moses gonz cty and Hescue, William gonz cty

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ftp://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/tx/abstracts/atascosa.txt
  I found the above web site.   It list both William and Moses as Land Owners in Atascosa county.   I would have thought that the Headright Land grants they got were in Gonzales County as they both lived there for some years..  and well... Moses lived there  till he died.   But I had suspected they were awarded the headright land grants in Atascosa County as William eventually moved there to reside?   All this is speculation on my part at this point, but .

 

I have found a James Hesskew in the 1880 Census records that is identified as a Black Man about 40 years old. This would likely be a candidate for the J. Hesskew identified above. It is more likely that James was a slave who took the Hesskew name?

I had ARMINTA LUCY HESSKEW, b. Abt. 1855; m. B.S. JETER, 1877 listed as a child of William and Mary previously, and this was based on the 1860 census information, from the " Ties that Bind". It is now my belief that ARMINTA LUCY HESSKEW is in fact Moses Hesskew's daughter who was probably visiting her uncles home when the census was done. It looks like she was counted in both homes.

 

Excerpt from  " The Ties that Bind" a history of Gonzales County , Texas. by Marjorie Burnett Hyatt  HESSKEW  There was a Hesskew Springs and a Hesskew school located on (present) John Billings property, around 1900. The Hesskew family was one of the very early families in this area, listed on the 1860 census at the Salt Stream Post Office. The road from Pilgrim to Smiley use to go by Hesskew Springs, before the present Hwy. 87 was built . There is still a windmill at the site of the old Hesskew home & school. (note by author: Although I have not explored this at length, I was unable to identify a Windmill still standing. Need to research this further)  WILLIAM A. HESSKEW b .1810/1814 SC was a Pvt. in the Wilson Rifle, CSA, 1861. His wife was MARY TOMSEN b. 1825 France, dau, of Jane TOMSEN, b. 1800 France, She was living with them on 1860 census. Their children, from 1860 census, all b. TX:  Mary J. 1845 m. William C. BILLINGS (son of Gibson) James 1848; Elizabeth 1850; Martha 1852; Harry 1854; Arminta Lucy 1855-1880 m. 1877 B.S. JETER  There was a J. HESSKEW b. 1840 TN who was living with the Jasper BILLINGS family in 1860, who could also have been a son of William & Mary. In 1850 the Wm. A. Hesskew family was #117 listed "On St. Marks River".

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